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Nobody running for election on the Oct. 8 ballot can even pull a qualifying petition to get on the ballot until April, yet February is shaping up as the month when it is determined what kind of challenge and how many challengers incumbent Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will face.

City of Memphis human resources director Quintin Robinson came from City Hall on the other side of the Main Street Mall last week to watch how Shelby County government handled changes to its health insurance plan for employees.

Shelby County Commissioners approved changes to county government employee health insurance coverage Thursday, Oct. 30, that raises employee premiums by 5 percent and drops working spouses who are offered equivalent coverage of the county’s bronze plan by their employers effective Jan. 1.

Shelby County Commissioners vote Monday, Sept. 22, on a resolution that is the first step in issuing $120 million in general obligation bonds over the next two years to finance “public works projects, including schools,” according to the resolution.

Former Shelby County Commissioner Deidre Malone will challenge incumbent Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell in the August county general election after winning the Tuesday, May 6, Democratic mayoral primary.

When the National Civil Rights Museum formally reopens Saturday, April 5, it will be with the “breaking” of a ceremonial chain at the new entrance to the building that was once the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

One of the six Shelby County Commission incumbents seeking re-election this year was effectively elected to a new four-year term in a new district with the noon Thursday, Feb. 20, filing deadline for candidates in the May county primaries.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A lawmaker has criticized a state Supreme Court decision that will force local governments across Mississippi to refund millions of dollars in property taxes to developers of affordable housing.

It keeps coming back to the issue of turf between the city of Memphis and the six suburban municipalities.

The complex questions of who paid for what, how much they paid and who gets it predates the ongoing move to schools consolidation by years. And it has everything to do with whether Shelby County has one or multiple public school systems at the start of the 2013-2014 school year.

Early voting is set to start to fill an Arkansas House seat vacated by a former Harlem Globetrotter.

Secretary of State Mark Martin says early voting in the primary race will start Tuesday for the Crittenden County seat held by Fred Smith. The former traveling basketball player resigned Jan. 26 after being convicted of felony theft of property delivered by mistake.

In April, attorney and retired Circuit Court Judge D’Army Bailey and Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy began publicly questioning whether it was right for the still forming consolidation charter’s fate to rest on two votes – one in the city of Memphis and the other in the county outside the city.

Lisa Waddell was a career employee at The Daily News, beginning her work here at the age of 19. Her life story is a model of success, embodying striving for excellence through perseverance, patience and wisdom.

Metro charter commissioners wanted to do more than send a message last week as they set guidelines for the office of metro mayor in a consolidated local government.

Several commissioners felt they had to discourage voters from making choices based too much on simple name recognition.

A proposed limit of two consecutive four-year terms on the mayor’s office was the setting for the larger debate. The charter commission’s recommendation, which is preliminary, would allow someone to be elected and serve two terms, sit out four years and then run again.

Those are the term limits now in place for most county offices. The same limits take effect for Memphis mayor and the City Council in 2011.

Other charter commissioners cited the recent election of Walter Bailey to the Shelby County Commission this year. Bailey ran for re-election in 2006 despite term limits, but lost to J.W. Gibson. After sitting out four years, Bailey was elected to the County Commission again without opposition.

Gibson, who serves on the charter commission, is among those who say term limits should not bar someone from running again after sitting out a term.

But charter commissioner Rufus Washington said local voters are guided in too many cases solely by name recognition and endorsements made in ballots handed to them as they walk into polling places.

“They don’t know who they are voting for,” he said. “We don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a city and a community that has some of the most innovative businesses in the world. But I think our politics is about the 17th century. I said it and I’m glad I said it.”

“You have people that make statements, ‘Nobody can run this city but me’ (and) ‘God put me here.’ That’s offensive to me,” Washington said, referring to former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton. “Sometimes people don’t know what’s best for them.”

He also referred to Bailey’s re-election.

“You can’t tell me that these are the only people that have the ability to run this city. … I take issue with that. I take the same position at the national level. We need a house cleaning,” he said.

Former Collierville Mayor Linda Kerley said the problem isn’t limited to Memphis politics. She agreed the charter commission should try to interrupt the political pattern with the charter proposal.

“We need to somehow make a very strong statement,” she said. “We don’t need to put a person in a position where they can falter. … We are not looking at the integrity of the position.”

The Rev. Ralph White proposed a compromise of three consecutive terms with no option to then sit out a term and serve again if elected a fourth time.

But before any of the alternatives to two consecutive terms could be moved, the commission’s conversation veered into the requirement that candidates be 21 or older, and other qualifications.

White proposed raising the minimum age to run for mayor to 25 years old. That and another motion to leave the minimum age at 30 each failed to get enough votes, so the 21-year benchmark remained.

Commission vice chair Andre Fowlkes, who is 32, argued for a 25-year-old age minimum.

“That’s a pretty bright person. I mean, let’s really think about it. They are rallying an entire city to vote for them and give them the majority to win. … They must be doing something right,” he said.

“If the simple ability to get elected – to organize your friends – if that’s the test, then term limits is off the table and you can just drop to 18 (years old) by default. To me, that can’t be the reason that you do it,” he said.

Fowlkes argued a candidate younger than 30 years old for mayor would, as a matter of practical politics, have to convince older voters since voter participation is lower among younger voters.

Read more about the work of the Metro Charter Commission in the current edition of The Memphis News, which can be found at The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com.

2009 was a year without a script – and plenty of improvising on the political stage.

It was supposed to be an off-election year except in Arlington and Lakeland.

2008 ended with voters in the city and county approving a series of changes to the charters of Memphis and Shelby County governments. Those changes were supposed to set a new direction for both entities, kicking into high gear in 2010 and ultimately culminating two years later.

Another potential mayoral candidate is considering stepping into the fray.

With the release of a brief statement Wednesday afternoon, Wanda Halbert floated her interest in October’s special election to choose someone to fill the rest of Willie Herenton’s mayoral term, which ends in 2011.

Another potential mayoral candidate is considering stepping into the fray.

With the release of a brief statement Wednesday afternoon, Wanda Halbert floated her interest in October’s special election to choose someone to fill the rest of Willie Herenton’s mayoral term, which ends in 2011.

The Shelby County Election Commission today is setting the stage for the next step in the coming special election for Memphis mayor.

The commission will meet at 4:30 p.m. to consider setting a deadline for candidates to file and a date for the election itself sometime in late October. In setting the dates, the commission would abide by terms of the Memphis Charter. The charter calls for a special election three months after a vacancy in the mayor’s office if there is no regularly scheduled election within six months of the date the office becomes vacant.

Over the past several days, the investigation into a blackmail plot against Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton drew to a close. And in the waning days of that criminal probe, the woman who went public last year with details of the plot was given a polygraph exam, The Daily News has learned.

Mark Norris and Walter Bailey are both attorneys. They both served on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners during the legal fight in the mid-1990s over how a Shelby County school board should be elected.

His law office is part of the picturesque town square of Franklin, Tenn. A lifelong resident there, he's a member of the vestry at the local St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and his family has lived in the town for more than 175 years.

When poet, memoirist and cultural icon Maya Angelou visited Memphis last spring, she brought her regal bearing with her.

Before a room full of admirers at The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, the 78-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner recounted some of the many obstacles she's faced in life. Abandonment. Sexual assault. Poverty. Exclusion. Discrimination.

Dr. Richard W. Phillips has been named president-elect of Southern College of Optometry in Memphis. Phillips is a 1978 graduate of the college and the former regional executive director for Tennessee operations for TLC - Laser Eye Centers. He will be only the sixth person to hold the office in the college's 75-year history. Phillips will assume the presidency May 17. He is replacing William E. Cochran, who is retiring.

The River of Trade Corridor Coalition, a partnership of more than 225 members spread out over nine states and dedicated to the promotion of commerce, selected Memphis as the site of its major quarterly meeting, which convenes today.